Since March 21, when the state’s health commissioner signed a waiver allowing EMTs to use the drug, six patients have been saved in Ocean County alone – the epicenter of New Jersey’s heroin epidemic.

There were a record-breaking 112 overdose deaths in Ocean County last year, most linked to heroin or opioids, compared with 53 in 2012. Statewide, drug-related deaths rose from 1,026 in 2011 to 1,294 deaths in 2012, according to the state medical examiner.

The waiver, together with the Overdose Prevention Act – signed into law last year by Gov. Chris Christie – means EMTs, health care professionals, pharmacists and others who administer Narcan are protected from civil, criminal and professional liability.

Often, public health policy is a high-altitude game, made up of policies and measures that do good work over the long term. The Christie administration deserves credit for saving these lives – six now, and those in the future. How gratifying it must be for policymakers who fast-tracked the Narcan waiver to see such immediate, lifesaving results.